No real tips needed. Get the kit, decide whether you are going to bolt it in or weld it in, and go from there. No gotchas, just git-r-done. Here is another pic of my install showing the plate I fabricated to fill in the notch in the door jam. If you don't want to go to this level of effort then just bolt the adapter in place, it comes in the kit.

Take a look at post #8 on this thread and you will see the part of the door that I cut out, the old latch mechanism, and the new Altman latch installed on the mounting plate supplied in the kit. What I did was to cut the door out and then trim the supplied Altman latch plate to match the hole in the door. I then welded it in place. If you choose not to weld it like I did, then all you need to do is to follow the directions in the kit which calls for making a similar cut in the door but only big enough for the new Altman mechanism to fit. The Altman mounting plate then mounts OVER this cutout and screws to the door. You can see the holes in this plate in the photo. Assuming that you are going to screw the plate in place, you may want to go with the stainless steel option instead of the plain plate that I used.

I don't have any photos of the welded section prior to beginning the finish work, but here's the next best thing. The door with the original section that was removed...

Thanks Charlie. I have ordered the kit in plain steel. I am assume the door is off the truck when installing the kit. Did you have to remove the window mechanism? And just cut the door where the install kit advises. I just really hate cutting old stuff up.
Thanks
Jerry

It is not necessary to remove the door or the window mechanism...that said, it's always easier to work on this area of the door if you can lay it flat and not have any obstructions that you need to work around. As for cutting up "old stuff"...well let's say that's something that you will soon get over once you see how nice these latches work.

It is not necessary to remove the door or the window mechanism...that said, it's always easier to work on this area of the door if you can lay it flat and not have any obstructions that you need to work around. As for cutting up "old stuff"...well let's say that's something that you will soon get over once you see how nice these latches work.

I know these latches will work with shaved door handles. My question is, will these work with suicide doors? Do you know if anyone has tried or installed them on suicide doors?

I just installed the Altman kit over the weekend in my sons 51 F1. I also welded my kit into his truck on the doors and will be welding in the strikes as well but for now bolted it in. They work great with a few small tweaks. Since I welded in the plates the latches are a "bear" to get in and out because if they are assembled they will not fit into place because of the window rear rail. So I had to remove the latch arm that your inside handle hooks to then install the latch and reinstall the arm once the latch was bolted in. Not fun or easy but works great now. So all in all I like the kit and would do it again.

Now for the bad of the kit that is not a big deal but for the price should be worked out. To start off the instructions were missing the fig. 1 that told you how much to cut off the exterior handles so I called and got the answer right away and went on to filling down the square shaft to fit the latch just right.

Next part was the (2)screws used to attach the inner rod to the latch. The directions say to use a nylock and do not over tighten because this is a pivot point. The problem is the screws were to short to contact the nylock part of the nut. Easy fix but had to go the hardware store for this.

Then once I had the latches installed and admittedly a pain in the arss because of MY CHOISE to weld in the plate I went to install the exterior handles and they did not fit. The info I received on the phone was incorrect and they needed to be cut down some more. This also meant they had to be filled to size again to fit the latch. Not huge but frustrating because I did not want to get the latches back out of the doors.

Last part that is a bigger deal is the exterior handles don't fit right because the receiving square hole in the latch is located in the center of the handle opening. Our handles do not have the square shaft centered but forward of center so this causes a bind in the handle. This would have been worse if I did not weld in my plates because the latch would be farther to the rear causing more off set in the wrongs direction. To fix this right I would need to cut and move the latch back some but one of these days we are going to modify the cab and doors so we will just deal with it until then.

Like I said all in all it is a great kit but me being **** about fabricating I tend to be a bit more picky then most but I would still buy again.

Kevin
LFD Inc.

I got a bear claw latch kit with zero instructions. I was wondering where onthe door the latch is located for installation. The factory '51 f1 latch ishigh, is that the target mounting spot or lower down below the factory latch inthe door?

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